Best Year Yet
by Naeginnie6
Summary: It is Lily Evans' third year at Hogwarts. Her worst enemy, James Potter is also in his third year. Will they ever get along, or tear each other to pieces?
1. Default Chapter

1 The Best Year Yet  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or scenes from the HP series. If I DID right now, I'd be skipping my education, living in Hawaii, and sitting by the sparkling ocean with a big corvette parked behind me. No, the HP characters belong to J.K. Rowling. No money is being made by this story. Too bad, huh? If there was, I'd have that corvette (  
  
A thirteen-year-old boy sat there, laughing merrily. He had untidy black hair, and pale, sparkling blue eyes hidden behind black glasses. His name was James. James was a cute troublemaker, and he was popular too. That's what most of the girls thought of him and his best friend, Sirius. The 'cute popular boys'. Sirius had long black hair that went to the middle of his neck. That's how he liked it, and he wore it in a ponytail at the back of his neck. He also had charming blue eyes, and an infectious smile. Then there was Remus. Remus was strongly built, had short brown hair, and brown eyes. He was also the friend of James and Sirius, and very popular. Their last friend, Peter, was as far from cute and popular as you could get, had watery black eyes, a pointy nose, and squeaky voice… and was hopeless at magic. These four friends were the Marauders.  
  
The Marauders attended a private school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Only children possessing magical prowess were selected to attend. James Potter was very intelligent. So were Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Peter Pettigrew, however, was not. They were all pranksters in Griffyndor.  
  
There was another, who wasn't really a Marauder, but could be quite a prankster at times. She was Lily Evans. This 13-year-old girl had auburn hair, worn in a bun or a braid. The most distinguishable feature of Lily was her emerald green eyes. She and the Marauders got along fine, that is, all but James. This is the story of the Marauders and Lily and how Lily showed them she could be just as good as they could.  
  
***  
  
"Come ON, Remus, it's not my fault!" complained Sirius. "It was Peter! He screwed it up!"  
  
"It wasn't me, it wasn't!" squeaked Peter.  
  
"Both of you, stop!" roared Remus. "Most likely you both messed it up and are just blaming it on the other. The only thing missing right now is James. Where is he, by the way?"  
  
"Oh- he went to Hogsmeade to get more Zonko products as usual," Said an invisible voice. "But he's back now!"  
  
"James! Tell him- tell Remus- it wasn't me!"  
  
"Remus, buddy," said the invisible James, "whatever it was, it wasn't Sirius."  
  
"James, just because you are invisible doesn't mean I can't see right through you. We were working on our own batch of veritassum, and one of those tow," he shot a glare at Sirius and Peter, "screwed it up. So now we have a purple liquid that burns right through whatever you pour it on."  
  
"Even better!" James was now visible, holding a silvery cloak, a bag of Zonko tricks, and a wide smile on his face. "Can you say Professor Craile's potions class? She'd go crazy! Mix it in with a little boomslang skin, she'll never know the difference until- BANG! Boomslang gives a 'boom' and burns right through her cauldron." Then Lily stepped in.  
  
"What's so funny?" she asked. They looked amongst themselves, and laughed even harder. "Well, I told Snape to put a little elbow grease into his hair, I thought he knew what kind of grease I was talking about!" Now Remus cracked up all together. "ok, ok! Remus, it wasn't that funny! Actually, it wasn't funny at all. What'd you guys give him today?"  
  
"Nothing yet!" said Sirius defensively.  
  
James got right to the point. "Lily Evans. If we wanted you to know, we would've told you!"  
  
"Well, gosh darn, Jamie!" Lily started, being sarcastic. "Well, in that case, goodbye!" She huffed out of the portrait of the Fat Lady.  
  
"Good, James, great! She might not be that bad to add to our forces, you know?"  
  
"Yeah, well, whatever. Let's go jar that stuff. I don't want to talk about HER right now." That was that, and although Sirius tried really, really hard to provoke him, James wouldn't talk about Lily any more.  
  
***  
  
Lily was sitting on her bed, in her cozy Griffyndor dorm. She was thinking up things she could do to James Potter. Writing them down in a notebook, she had quite a few so far.  
  
Turn his quills and ink fluffy and pink  
  
Make ink spill all over his homework  
  
Enchant his watch to always tell the wrong time  
  
Turn his hair purple and green  
  
Make his glasses 'oldies style'  
  
Now, Lily was nobody to violence, so she'd never hurt him intentionally, of course. "Maybe I could inflate his bag to the size of a troll. Nah, too obvious." She was determined for James to accept her. "The way to get to him is to get to his friends, first," She thought. "Pettigrew will be no problem. Remus, maybe. But Sirius seems to not mind me. Then there's just James." She planned the order of what she'd do and when.  
  
1)Pettigrew 3'o clock Saturday afternoon: Bucket of green slime on head when dorm door opens.  
  
"This is too easy!" she thought. And when her planning was finally done, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.  
  
***  
  
James awoke that night, a sudden idea coming to him in his dreams. He crept out of his dorm, taking with him his Invisibility Cloak, wrapping it around him, and holding his wand ready. He went over to the door of the girls dorm. He muttered under his breath, "Alohamora," and the locked door opened up. He silently went over to the showers, found the one marked 'Lily' in curly letters, and whispered, "Livio!" and went out of the dorm, back into his own, snickering silently. 


	2. 

DISCLAIMER: If I owned Harry Potter, do you REALLY think I'd be writing this? No. I'd be basking in the lap of luxury, counting cash and ordering around Alfonzo, my butler.  
  
"Potter!" roared Lily for to the world. "You'll die for this!" When she woke up that morning, and went to shower, she opened the blue curtain and found her shampoo and conditioner having a soap bubble fight instead of a snowball fight. Her faucet was going on and off, and Lily had no trouble showing her anger. She got dressed, went back into the shower, saying "Restorus!" and everything stopped, moving back to where they had been the previous night when she went to bed.  
  
Lily stormed into the common room. "Potter! Where are you?" James came out from his dorm, looking innocent, stretching and yawning.  
  
"Oh, hello, Lily. Feeling showered and clean?" he now had a mischievous glint in his eyes.  
  
"You prat! How'd you get into my showers? Arrgh! You'll pay, Potter! You'll pay!" Lily's thoughts spun in her head. Forget his friends. It didn't matter if James Potter accepted her. Oh, no. Now it was more than that. Now, getting back was all that mattered.  
  
***  
  
Lunch was James's favorite part of the day. He could eat, the 1st best thing, but he could also plan his next action. He looked over at Lily, his victim, talking to Kelly Clerk, Chloe Anderson, and Annie Dashner. They were also talking to Bobby Brown and Steve Patil. Lily had her hair in a bun with two strands of hair framing her face. He turned back to his friends. Peter and Remus were (yet again) in an argument.  
  
"Peter! If you can't notice the hole in the table, I think you'll have to borrow James's glasses!"  
  
"I'm telling you, it wasn't me! Where's Sirius?" they all looked around, but didn't see him. Remus dropped the fight. They looked around more.  
  
"Oh, there he is," Remus said.  
  
"Just getting some butter beer from the kitchens," he explained. "Drink up!"  
  
As they were drinking James told them about what he'd done that night. They all laughed and told him he was on his own.  
  
***  
  
Lily was talking to her best friend Kelly Clerk. "Oh, come ON, Lily. James Potter is sooooo cute!" Lily looked over at this kid. He had a butter beer, they all did!  
  
"He's not that great, Kel," she said with a slight frown.  
  
"Aww, you're just jealous 'cause he brought your soap to life."  
  
"Kel, listen to me. He's trouble. But just wait until tonight. Let's finish our breakfast so we can go to Hogsmeade, ok?"  
  
"Gees, alright, already, Lil. What do you need so badly anyways?"  
  
"You'll see," was the final reply.  
  
*** 


	3. 

DISCLAIMER: If I owned Harry Potter, which I do not, then I would, at this moment, be eating cocktail weenies in my in-ground pool, with a little bit of Lemon Pepsi…  
  
That night they climbed to the top of North Tower. James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily, Kelly, Annie, and Professor Durin made up the Griffyndor Astronomy class. They all brought sleeping bags, because it was going to be to late to go back to the Common Room that night. It was 10 o'clock that night, and their class would last 2 hours.  
  
"Class, please partner up and do the exercises on pages 110-123," requested Professor Durin. Once they were done, Professor Durin asked them to please clean up and get ready to go to sleep. The Professor had arranged the sleeping bags herself, to keep people from talking all night. James was next to Lily. She wasn't too until she realized this made her plan so much more easier.  
  
When James was over on the other side of the room, Lily took a bag out of her duffel bag. She emptied the contents into James's sleeping bag. When James came over she acted very innocent indeed. He climbed into his bag and…  
  
"Ow! OW! Arrgh! Owie!" James was hopping around in his sleeping bag. Lily was cracking up. ("Ow! Eek!" could be heard from the people James stepped on.) "EVANS! Ow! Ooh! My foot! Evans, this means war!"  
  
Professor Durin came in from another room. "What's the problem in here?" Lily was quick to reply.  
  
"James is hopping all over us. It hurts!"  
  
James shot out quickly, "Because she" *a glare at Lily*, "put Filibuster Fireworks in my sleeping bag!" he roared.  
  
They (the fireworks) died out just then. "Ten points from Griffyndor, each of you. AND a detention." Lily and James glared at each other. You would've thought they'd burn a hole through the other's head. "Now GO to sleep!" If you had seen the rage in James's and Lily's eyes, you would've been scared.  
  
*** 


	4. 

DISCLAIMER: I don't own James Potter. I don't own Lily Evans. I don't own…. (goes on for ever)…BUT I do own Kelly Clerk, Chloe Anderson, Annie Dasnher etc. etc.  
  
  
  
The dungeons were cold that night. It was 8 o'clock and Lily and James sat in the dungeon pickling frog's eyes and arguing (as usual).  
  
"You know what? It's your fault I'm in here now. I could have been playing chess with Remus or setting off dungbombs with Sirius." Complained James.  
  
"Yeah, you think so? If you hadn't messed up my shower, I wouldn't have had to get back," Lily spat.  
  
"Well YOU obviously can't take a joke!"  
  
"Hey, the only thing humorous around here is how funny looking you are." Lily sulked and plopped another purple eyeball into the jar and poured some yellow-green liquid over it. "What's your problem, Potter? I'm not going to do all the work around here!"  
  
James just sat there with a smile on his face. "Oh yeah? Great Evans," he rolled his eyes. "Think fast!" he said, and pointing his wand at her, cried, "Minuto!" but Lily was faster.  
  
"Expilarimus!" James's wand flew up in the air, arched, and she gracefully caught it. "I'll be keeping this until we're done," she smirked. They worked for about ½ hour. The James broke the silence.  
  
"You know what, Evans? This means war."  
  
***  
  
James told Peter, the only one awake when he got back to the Common Room, what happened. He'd gotten his wand back, as promised. His head would have made Lily's head 3x smaller.  
  
Peter laughed. "You know James, she might not be so bad! She could really help us."  
  
"You GUYS! Who's side are you on? Sirius said the same thing! Remus? Grr. Wake up, you guys!" After lots of poking and prodding, James got exasperated. He pointed his wand at Sirius and Remus. "Ennervate!"  
  
Suddenly they woke up. "Oh, hello James. Peter, Sirius," said a groggy Remus.  
  
"Who's side are you on?" demanded James right away.  
  
"Um…of who?" asked Sirius. James told him. (that-thing- Lily or me?) "Oh! Uh… I dunno." *Glare from James*  
  
"Remus?" asked James.  
  
"I'd have to say Lily has the better point, but I'm not taking sides. This thing is strictly you and her." James glowered.  
  
"Fine! I'm going to pan my next attack. Sirius, care to join?"  
  
"Ok, I guess…but only for a bit!" James finally looked satisfied.  
  
*** 


	5. 

DISCLAIMER: If anybody feels like suing me, don't. You have no 'solid ground'. I don't own Harry Potter, and you KNOW that! So why do I have to write these? Hmm….  
  
Lily sat there in the Common Room. She, Kelly, Annie and Chloe couldn't go up to their dorm. James had set off dung bombs off at the foot of Lily's four-poster bed. Lily was sick of his pranks. There was one week until Christmas. Kelly and Annie were going home to their parents. Lily and Chloe were staying at Hogwarts. Today was the last Hogsmeade trip until after vacation was over.  
  
Lily was buying her Christmas presents today. Kelly would be getting a silver charm with a broomstick on it. She loved Quidditch, so did James. He was a seeker, and a good one, much to Lily's disappointment. Anyways, Annie would receive a necklace with a golden charm of a dragonfly. Annie was MADE for Transfiguration, and the day they were turning feathers into dragonflies, Annie had a field day. Chloe would have a small, jade ring. She always loved green, her dress robes were jade, her braces were jade, and her hair scrunchies were jade, too. Lily would find this all at Magellan's Jewelry.  
  
They all left for Hogsmeade just then. They all got butter beers, a treat of Kelly's. Just then James and his entourage came into the Three Broomsticks. "Ah, the lovely Miss Lily," James said sarcastically. "Well, lovely, no, but at least you don't smell THAT bad!" Lily pouted.  
  
"Funny, Potter. Get out of my sight!" snapped Lily.  
  
"That hurts, Evans. It's cold outside and we just wanted a butter beer. We've been to Zonko's. Stocked up on dung bombs, we did."  
  
"Lay off, James." Chloe stood up.  
  
"Yeah, she's right, James. Just because you love Lily doesn't mean you should stand here talking away," helped Sirius.  
  
"I…could…never…love…her!" He flushed and choked out. "Let's go!"  
  
"Fine with me!" Lily shouted after them.  
  
"You like him, don't you? DON'T you?" poked Kelly. She smiled and danced up and down in her seat triumphantly. "Lily loves James! Ha ha, I knew it!  
  
Lily blushed now. "I DO not! You believe me, right Chloe? Annie? YOU believe me, right?"  
  
"Nope!" they chorused.  
  
*** 


	6. 

DISCLAIMER: At the moment, I am eating homemade pizza. If I really owned Harry Potter + Co. I'd probably be eating shrimp cocktail at an expensive restaurant, although I don't know how much I'd like it.  
  
When Lily awoke Christmas morning, the foot of her bed was overflowing with presents. She opened them all. There was mostly good stuff. Then she saw a black velvet box under everything. She opened the card. It said:  
  
~Merry Christmas. Sorry. James. ~  
  
She felt slightly happy. She DID like James when she thought about it. When she opened it up, there was a locket inside. "Ooh!" she cried. She opened it up and a blue liquid squirted into her eye. "Ow!" It stung a lot. Inside the locket there was a note.  
  
~GOTCHA! Ha-ha! ~  
  
Lily fumed.  
  
She got back by sneaking into James's dorm, and saying, "Accio, shoes!" His shoes flew over to her. She then said, "Allegro!" and snuck away.  
  
The next morning when James tried to put on his shoes, no matter what he tried, his shoes kept running away from him. "Grr! C'mon, guys, help me!" Remus chuckled.  
  
"Yeah, right!" Remus said. "This is too funny!" they were all rolling on the floor laughing. All except for James.  
  
"Fine," he said. "I've got OTHER shoes." But all his other shoes did the same thing.  
  
***  
  
James and Lily's pranks continued through the New Year. At least one of them had a detention every week. The best one played was at the St. Patrick's Day Feast. The Great Hall was covered in shamrocks of all the Houses' colors: scarlet, yellow, blue, and green. Lily bewitched the ones near James to yell things out at random points. They said things like, "Loser! Ugly! Rancid! Stupid! Idiot!" and like things.  
  
James retaliated by turning her pumpkin juice into cough medicine. (The Muggle kind that tastes really horrible). This however, backfired, when Lily spat it out into James's face.  
  
They kept this going until Mid-May. That's when they got into real trouble.  
  
*** 


	7. 

DISCLAIMER: I Do not claim to own Harry Potter. If I did, you'd be seeing me more frequently in a nutty farm. Not that that won't happen, just saying….  
  
Lily and James stood facing each other in a hall way. They were on their way to Charms. A group of first-years looked on. The expressions on their faces mingled between fear, amazement, and wonder. This was a very big duel between the two.  
  
At the same time, they both shouted their hexes. James cried, "Flamearas!" and Lily bellowed, "Blizzardio!"  
  
The two spells just missed each other. Lily's sent an icy blast of cold wind and ice towards James. He just barely dodged it. His, however, sent a ball of flames to Lily. She ducked and the flames singed her hair and went through her bag.  
  
Just then Professor McGonagal walked down the hall. "POTTER! EVANS! FOLLOW ME!" she commanded.  
  
"Uh-oh," James whispered to Lily as they slowly trudged after the Professor. 


	8. 

DISCLAIMER: Run, run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me; I'M THE GINGERBREAD MAN! Oops, sorry. Wrong story… Oh, um, yes. I do not own Harry Potter. Or the Gingerbread Man for that matter, either.  
  
"But- Professor, it wasn't supposed to be a big thing- it was only gonna be-"  
  
"Enough Potter! You have been completely out of control- you too, Miss Evans." Professor McGonagal was lecturing them (once again). "If either of you pull even one more stunt- one more toe out of line- I will see to it you are suspended. Understood?"  
  
"Whoa!" thought Lily. "I never thought it would be THIS big a deal." She spoke to Professor McGonagal. "James is right, Professor. It wasn't supossed to hurt me. We'd never go THAT far." Professor McGonagal smiled, sort of.  
  
"I do not doubt that. But whether intentional or not, he DID burn a hole through your bag, just missing you. You're lucky it only scorched your hair, not burned your head off. You are dismissed." (She gave them detentions and warnings and the whole shaboozie, too, don't worry.)  
  
James and Lily stepped out. It was a shock to both James and Lily what he did next. He turned to her in a truly honest way and said, "I'm sorry. I never thought it would go this far. Honestly." Lily was thoroughly shocked.  
  
"It's ok I guess. Yeah, yeah it is. We've gotten almost as bad as the Slytherins, if you can imagine." She laughed. "Truce?" she asked.  
  
"Truce," said James. They shook hands.  
  
"Eww! James!" It was the first time she had called him 'James' and not 'Potter'. It felt good. "I can't believe you did that!" she giggled. James had "accidentally" left some green goop on his hands, and when they shook hands, it had "accidentally" smushed into hers. She giggled again. They went back to Griffyndor Tower, playfully pushing and shoving each other along the way.  
  
*** 


	9. 

DISCLAIMER: You probably know what I'm about to say. I don't own Harry Potter or anybody else in this story that belongs to somebody else. That clears up that, thanks for reading this far. Takes guts for reading something as crappy as this and keep going.  
  
The Marauders were gathered in Dumbledore's office. Things were not looking good for them. Fawkes, Dumbledore's pheonix, was perched on top of his desk, singing an eerie tune.  
  
"Boys," Dumbledore began, sternly, without his usual twinkling eyes and bright smile. "I think you know why you are here. You are in VERY big trouble. You have pulled one stunt too many. I must say, not as many as you have in the past, but this time I have had quite enough. You are being expelled. I am very sorry. Please hand over your wands."  
  
Suddenly, in burst Lily. "Professor…! Don't do… it! I… was the… one who pulled… that stunt." She was panting. She had run down the hall and burst into his office. (She had gotten into quite a row with the gargoyle, until she gotten fed-up, kicked it and yelled "Blood-pop!" in frustration, and it opened up.) She paused and caught her breath. "End of year prank. I'm sorry. Please, please don't expel them!" Now Dumbledore looked amused. All four Marauders looked genuinely surprised.  
  
"Lillian Evans. That was a noble thing for you to do. I do not buy it, though. Your true Griffyndor is showing. Even though you may have been expelled, you stood up for the people you had helped to get such dirty records. I will not expel any of you. You have Miss Evans to thank."  
  
This was the most shocking thing of all. Among their surprised faces, the Marauder who first despised Lily Evans, got up, said to her, "Thank you so much," and hugged her, in front of everybody.  
  
"Whoa." Said Sirius. Lily stood there, stunned, finally hugged him back, and said,  
  
"No problem." Everybody was happy as they left, and they even snuck down to the kitchen and had a miniature party with the house elves. 


	10. 

DISCLAIMER: No mucho money, no grande pool. No butlers and no maids. Do you REALLY think I own Harry Potter? If you do, I suggest a psychiatrist.  
  
The train chugged out of the station. James and Lily sat next to each other. Sirius, next to Lily, near the window. Remus, Peter, and Kelly were on the other side. Chloe and Annie sat on either end of the seats, barely room for the eight of them, in a compartment made for five, at most. Remus lazily flicked his wand, and said, "Maxmatious," and the compartment made room for all of them.  
  
Enjoying their last hours of being able to use magic, they played five rounds of exploding snap, set off Filibuster Fireworks, and had a little party. They all got chocolate frogs from the witch with the food cart.  
  
Lily now had a REAL locket around her neck, from James as a Thank you/I'm sorry present. AS it was time to leave, James helped Lily get her trunk out, whispered to her, "Thanks again, Lily. I'll see you in September, ok?"  
  
"Ok, James. Owl me if you can, ok?"  
  
"Sure." With last promises made, James had finally accepted Lily and as they both made their way back to their parents, Lily waved goodbye to James. This had definately been the best year at Hogwarts yet.  
  
  
  
THE END! 


End file.
